*Due to the numerous events in this unit, this post will be split into 4 parts: New South, Disenfranchisement, Early Civil Rights, and WWI.*
After the Civil War, Georgia and the rest of the Southern United States had been devastated by the destruction of farming land. This was especially true for Georgia, due to Sherman's March to the Sea, a campaign that destroyed Atlanta. To get out of this depression, the South had to step away from the past and begin a path to modernism.
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| Henry W. Grady |
New South was an ideology coined by Henry W. Grady, a news paper reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Its main belief was that the South should industrialize so that they could compete with Northern factories. Although it believed in the modernism of the economy, it still believed in racism and white supremacy. Because of this, it was a sect of the Democratic Party. The New South became popular with the political group the Bourbon Triumvirate.
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| John Gordon |
The Bourbon Triumvirate was a democratic group comprised of John Gordon, Joseph E. Brown, and Alfred Colquitt. The group was very powerful in the state of Georgia and dominated the political landscape for many years. It was unknown if the men actually got along and cooperated or if they couldn't stand each other. The political reign lasted from John's election to Senate in 1872 to the end of his other term as senator in 1897. Here are quick facts about the each of them:
- John Gordon (1832-1904)- Gordon had a very successful military career with the Confederate Army during the Civil War. What was surprising was that he received no formal training as a soldier. Although being the publicly-acknowledged leader of Georgia's KKK, he was still elected to US Senate in 1872. He state as a US Senator until 1880, and had a term as Georgia Governor from 1886 to 1890. He returned to Senate again from 1891-1897, and then retired from politics.
- Alfred Colquitt (1824-1894)- Colquitt was born in Walton County, Georgia and was studying to become a lawyer. Things changed, however, whenever the Mexican War started in 1846, where he went to join the army. He rose to rank of major and stayed at this rank until the war ended in 1846. In 1853, Colquitt was elected to 1 term in US Congress. He went back into politics in 1859 whenever he was elected to the General Assembly (Georgia's state legislature) for Georgia. He was a very avid supporter of secessionism for Georgia and quickly joined the ranks of the Confederate Army once the Civil War (1861-1865) broke out. He served in many battles across the Confederate States and rose to the ranks of major general by the end of the war. Colquitt began his terms of the Bourbon Triumvirate by his election to be Governor of Georgia. He lasted from 1876 to 1882, and was then elected to US Senate for the Democratic Party the following year. He lasted a very long time in the Senate, which ended in his death in 1894.
- Joseph Brown (1821-1894)- Out of the three members of the powerful Bourbon Triumvirate, Brown had the most interesting political career. Brown was born in South Carolina but was raised in the mountains of Georgia. He went to Yale and had a very successful career as a lawyer. He was then elected to State Senate in 1849, and as a circuit judge in 1855. During his career as a senate he was an outspoken leader of the Democratic Party, something that changes later on in life. He was elected to the seat of Governor in 1857 and easily reelected in 1859. He was a heavy supporter of secession and criticized Abraham Lincoln's election. Brown stayed as Georgia governor until the Confederacy collapsed in 1865, and was a prisoner of the Union for a short period of time. He switched sides to be a Republican Supreme Court Judge of Georgia for two years. He then switched back to the Democratic party and again became a lawyer. He was elected to US Senate in 1880 and stayed until 1890. He then died of poor health four years later.
Tom Watson
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| Alfred Colquitt |
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| Joseph Brown |
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| Rebecca Latimer Felton |
Rebecca Latimer Felton was a very famous woman in the history in Georgia, as well as the very first women Senator in the history of the United States. She was sworn in as a senator to replace Tom Watson following his death in 1922. However, it was only symbolic for the eighty-seven year-old to be senator. She was only a senator for one day, but it was a symbol to show all that she has done in her life. She was the manager of her husband's political campaigns, spoke for women's rights, and reached out to the general population of Georgia. This was because of her column in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, where she wrote in defense of the South's ideals, women's suffrage (meaning the right to vote), and various topics to show her side of various events.
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